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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Happy Campers

Over the weekend, APL and I found some happy by taking a camping trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park with a couple of good friends and River, who was overjoyed to have so much water and sand to roll in. We took our tent trailer, who is named Donna. APL and I once spent three months living in Donna and traveling to all 48 contiguous United States, so just driving with her in tow always feels like an adventure.

We spent the weekend basking in the sun, rolling in the sand, wading in the creek, watching the puppies play, flying my amazing new dragon kite, cooking over the campfire, and stuffing ourselves with s’mores. It was quite excellent and relaxing. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

This trip also served as a really good marker for how far I’ve come since getting diagnosed with RA. On the one hand I’ve been a little bit bummed lately that a full year has passed and I am still dealing with a lot of pain and fatigue. On the other hand, we took the very same camping trip to Great Sand Dunes last May, right before I was diagnosed and I was pretty miserable for that whole trip. I was headachy and achy and I basically spent the whole time laying on a blanket in the shade.

But this time I did a lot better. I drove down early to get a campsite and I set up Donna all by myself. I hauled wood, chased the puppies around, participated in cooking and cleaning, and actually felt pretty good the whole weekend. I actually had a little bit of energy to play! So we had a really wonderful time and both APL and I had our spirits lifted a bit and that’s a good thing.